There are a few outcomes with associated value that an advertisement can bring you. Each outcome has a different value to your business. Below are the 4 values of an advertisement:

Levels And Value That A Marketing Medium Can Provide

1) Someone Sees It. This is the General public, with not much if any specific interest in you or your offerings. General Awareness of your business is beginning. This is the least valuable of the four outcomes. Some mediums can provide more value then just someone seeing it. Identifying what medium is right for you will provide more value, if you pick the right mediums the next outcome is more likely to happen.

2) A Target Prospect/Customer sees it. This is someone who is currently buying or looking to buy your type of products or services. Having this type of consumer see your ad is good. Typically it will take more than one view of your ad to make that customer become familiar with your business and be motivated to contact you.

3) An Inquiry. Someone contacts you after seeing/hearing your ad. This is where it becomes possible to track your ad campaigns. When a customer phones in, or walks through your door and asks you about your products and services you have the chance to ask a few questions of your own. Some people think it is invasive to ask questions, and it might be, but I am very confident that if you ask nicely, no one will feel invaded. Sometimes people have a tendency to ask, “How did you hear about us?” this is a good start, but more work needs to be done. Asking that question leaves too much on the customer to try and remember every way they have seen or heard about your business. Being a bit more specific will help you understand what is working and what is not.

Now this is a good point to acknowledge. Not every business has just one person receiving inquiries, or it may be a little unrealistic to have a conversation with everyone. If that is the case, you need to get a little creative. Putting out a questionnaire with an incentive for filling it out is a possibility. You can email a survey to your client base (if you do not have an email list for your clients, start one today). You can train your staff to ask every customer 3 questions and record the answers. For example...“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about how you heard about us.” If they say ‘no’, you are good to go, and if the say ‘yes’, there is no reason to go any further. 999 times out of 1000, I bet they will say ‘okay’.

Here are some questions you can ask:

Have you seen our advertisement in ...

Have you heard our advertisement on ...

Have you seen a video of our business?

Is this your first time here?

When was the last time you were here?

Have you been to our website?

How did you get to our website?

These are just a few. Try to list ten questions you can ask your customers.

4) Someone buys as a result of seeing the ad. This is clearly the best outcome from an advertisement or marketing initiative and it is definitely the hardest to come by. Having someone come to you with an open wallet saying, “Sell me something” does not happen after every ad you will run. However, this does not mean that it is not possible. Typically, for this to happen, you need to have a very strong offer that is borderline knock your socks off. Or, someone sees your ad that is currently seeking your product or service, is ready to buy and you are easy to get to.

The point of this article is to outline what will happen from your advertisement or marketing initiative. Once you determine which outcome you are hoping for, you can begin to create a message that caters to that outcome.

Looking for some other resources to help you improve your marketing? Check out these other articles.

If you are interested in affordable local advertising that will deliver strong branding and results Intrigue Media may be able to assist you. Their website is www.intrigueme.ca

I help various B2B small businesses in Waterloo and Kitchener generate new customers. If you are interested in keeping up to date on issues related to marketing, sales and generating new customers for B2B small businesses consider subscribing by email to this blog. Thanks for reading this article on local business marketing.

Profitworks

Profitworks Small Business Services Inc. a company that provides search engine optimzation and website conversion optimization services which increase the amount of sales generated from a website. Profitworks is a company built on the values of integrity, hard work, doing things better than they have ever been done before and the utmost commitment to our customers. The focus of our all of our services is to provide a positive return on investment to our customers.